Tag: evidenced based

Over the years, I’ve seen the words “evidence-based” used to justify a lot of concepts I find dubious. (Trust me– I saw some pretty ridiculous things during the time I worked in a mental health group home).

This article from Paul Ingraham at PainScience.com in favor of moving from evidence-based to science-based medicine was music to my ears. I realized that, although I hadn’t consciously thought of it in those terms, advocating for that shift has been one of my motivations for working on this blog.

A lot of the treatments for fibromyalgia sufferers might be “evidenced-based,” but that doesn’t mean they shed any real light onto its causes. For example, an “evidenced-based” course of treatment for someone with chronic pain or fibromyalgia might be cognitive-behavioral therapy. It’s true that multiple studies have shown CBT to be helpful for patients with these conditions.

However, I don’t believe it’s reasonable to infer that because CBT has been shown to benefit fibromyalgia patients, those patients must have had an underlying psychological problem in the first place which contributed to their fibromyalgia.

To me, that’s confounding variables.

It makes perfect sense that someone with chronic health problems is going to appreciate having a sympathetic person sit with them, listen to them, and teach them new coping strategies. However, this does not mean that fibromyalgia or related conditions are caused by depression or anxiety. It simply means that therapy helps patients feel better.

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What I try to do on this blog is to present the scientific evidence in favor of what I’m arguing. That’s why I am always linking to academic articles. Even though I know people don’t always have time to read them, it’s important to me that the citation is there.

For one thing, it makes sense that you’re going to find a higher rate of depression and anxiety among the chronically ill. I don’t know why anyone is surprised by this. To me, it makes perfect sense that those suffering in chronic pain and discomfort would experience an impact on their mental health. It’s a chicken and the egg problem, and I find those studies relatively meaningless.

To say that depression and anxiety are responsible for chronic pain is to focus on only the tip of the iceberg. If the people who published these studies would at least acknowledge the rest of the iceberg, I would be able to take them more seriously.

But it seems that academic knowledge is too compartmentalized. Some people go into psychology and study people’s moods and thoughts. Some people go into neurology and study the nervous system. Even the people within neurology end up specializing.

This is why I am inspired to see people beginning to criticize the concept of “evidenced-based.” I’m tired of people throwing those words around as though it means what they are doing is automatically great. There is a difference between evidenced-based and science-based. When you can see physical abnormalities in the brain of a chronic pain sufferer under a fMRI, that is science. Assuming that people with fibromyalgia must have a problem with depression because psychotherapy makes them feel temporarily better is not.

Anyway, that was a bit of a rant (but I’ve been told my rant-y posts are some of my best!).